


There is something I need to tell you

by Shadowdianne



Series: Prompts [32]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Start as frozen swan, ends up as swan queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 17:26:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4633872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt:<br/>AU:As Emma White finds herself alone for summer she starts trying to teach Regina Mills how to ice skate only to find herself starting to have feelings for the other girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt:  
> It could start with FrozenSwan and Emma is this wealthy kid (well snow and charming are) and her gf (Elsa) went to visit her sis. Em sees Regina skating and Cora is scolding her cause she did some wrong move. It starts as a friendship (Em offers to train her) and they fall in love!! But Em refuses cause she's not a cheating ass. And Elsa sees the love in her eyes and she can’t stand her best friend/girlfriend being sad and she asks Em to go for Regina but then Forest face shows up or something and there’s a little angst but it all works out in the end!!!

“Emma?” the clear pure voice made Emma smile a little before turning, one of her brows raised as she watched the paler girl enter in the room with her bottom lip between her teeth.

“I thought you would have go by now” The blonde said, frowning for a second as she approached her girlfriend. The other girl nodded and exhaled, shrugging and rumpling a little the blue sweater she was wearing. Grabbing Emma’s hands between hers and giving a reluctant squeeze to Emma’s long finger Elsa looked at her feet, her blue eyes slightly clouded.

“I wanted to see you once again, I’m going to miss you” She finally admitted, making Emma smile bitterly a little herself.

They had been friends since they both were ten years old and Elsa’s parents had decided to send her abroad in order to make her improve her English. Year after year the girl had returned with new tales about her home and her little sister and year after year Emma had waited for her friend to tell her the new pranks  they would pull either on her parents or in the boy’s that lived a few minutes away; Neal Cassidy. The three of them had been almost inseparable until Neal’s father decided that it was time to move to another location.

The two girls, now roughly touching fifteen, had slowly but surely started another path on their friendship that after many bumps and twirls had ended up with them starting a tentative relationship with each other. Almost four years after their first kiss Elsa was standing there, unsure and nervous of going back home to see her little sister and Emma was looking at her, months away from the beginning of her classes on the university.

“I’m going to miss you too” Emma finally answered, touching her girlfriend’s cheek with one of her hands, kissing the other blonde’s forehead when Elsa refused to look at her. “It’s only going to be a few weeks”

The girl nodded and sighed, she was ecstatic to see Anna once again; their parents had decided that Anna, being the younger, didn’t need the same education Elsa had had and so the girls barely spent as much time together as they would have liked. Anna was normally the only thing that kept Elsa feeling welcomed in her own house after all since Elsa sexuality and other things had soon enough started to clash with her conservative parents.

That time though, everything was going to be different once she returned to De White’s mansion. Emma’s parents were what everybody would say filthy rich and the two families knew each other from the time both Mary and her own mother studied in the same college. Sadly, Emma and herself weren’t going to be that lucky and once the girls hit the beginning of their respective academic years they were going to be in a different universities, alone.

And that was something that Elsa despised.

“Hey” Emma said, making Elsa look at her, her eyes now hidden behind her unruly blonde hair. “We will figure everything out yes? You are my best friend and my girlfriend, seeing each other once a week will be piece of cake once we start our classes. You will see”

With that the blonde kissed the other, a chaste kiss that made Elsa blush a little when it turned into something more heated for a second.

“Go” Emma finally said with a wink “I will skate while you are in Arendel; I’m going to be as good as you when you return”

Elsa laughed at that: although Emma was quite good in skates she would never be as good as her and her friend-turned-girlfriend had long ago declared that Elsa either had sell her soul in order to be part of the ice or she had been born with skates glued to her feet.

“You can try but you will never manage to beat me” She said before pecking Emma on her lips once again and turning, Emma pouting for a second before she followed her towards the main gate of the house.

“We will see of that” She said, her smile loosening her brightness when the car that was going to bring Elsa to the airport finally exited her parent’s property  leaving a cloud of direst behind him.

* * *

 

A few hours after that Emma found herself looking at the ice rink that had been built by her grandfather more than fifty years before. The place had been constructed as a way of telling everyone in Storybrooke how powerful the old patriarch of the White’s family had been. Once the man had died his wife had decided to open the rink to whomever that wanted to try their luck on the skates. So far the place had never been closed, nor in winter or in summer. This actually explained the amount of people that kept skating inside trying to fight the heat that July brought with him outside the cold walls of the rink. They weren’t enough to fill the rink but more than the five or six people Emma had been seeing during June when both Elsa and her had go there.

Tapping her long fingers against the fence that circled the rink the blonde looked at the ceiling of the place, letting out a sigh before she moved towards the changing rooms. Elsa would be arriving at Arendel’s airport in less than an hour and a part of her wanted to call her as soon as the she landed even if Elsa had asked her numerous times to not do it worried about her parents reaction if they ever found out their relationship. “I know that sometime I will need to tell them the truth” The blonde had explained the first time she had asked for that “But I’m not sure when I’m going to be ready to do it.”

So far Elsa hadn’t told her parents any change on their relationship and even Emma’s meddling parents’ had agreed to keep their mouth shut just in case.

That didn’t help with Emma’s situation though and so there she was, reading herself for  skating and trying not to think too much on Elsa and how she was feeling.

“C’mon Swan” She thought, calling herself the nickname Neal had given her so many years ago when she had had a complete obsession over the animals. “Just a few weeks, nothing else, nothing more”

Sighing inwardly and trying to smile to a few people that were already on the changing room, the blonde grabbed her own skates and put them on, smiling a little at the thought of Elsa before she walked awkwardly towards the door that communicated with the rink.

Once she was finally there she let herself inhale, her noise filling with the cold, limpid odor of ice. Something that she had become not only familiar but also comfortable with it. Starting to move around the rink she did a few backspins eliciting a few applauses here and there for the people that were looking from the other side of the rink. Soon enough she let the ice took her, the pain and sadness fading a little after she tried and managed to do a camel spin without pulling out her leg. Once she returned to her former position she turned around, almost expecting to see Elsa watching her from ajar with a smile on her lips and a teasing look on her eyes before she doubled (or tripled) the pirouette she had just mastered. Unfortunately, she found herself alone and her mood dampened a little once again at the realization.

Sighing, she resumed doing a few pirouettes here and there, mentally calculating when she was going to be able to call Elsa. Biting her bottom lip she scratched the back of her head, her blonde tresses bouncing unruly after that.

Then, as she approached the entrance of the rink once again, she heard a rather high-pitched voice that made her narrow her eyes and look at the source of it, blinking in surprise when she saw a middle-aged woman eying warily from the other side of the fence at a young woman that looked as old as her. The first woman, who Emma decided that could be the mother of the second, was dressed with the most expensive clothes Emma had ever seen on market and for a second she looked self-consciously at the warm and comfortable clothes she herself wore. She didn’t look like her parents’ daughter and that was actually something that she had been told quite a few times as she grew up. However the woman scolding the young girl, as new in town as she looked, was someone ready to be on some fashion show.

“Regina, I can’t believe that after everything I’d done for you, you are still unable to do some simple change-foot spin” The older woman was saying with a scowl on her face as the girl at Emma’s side of the fence swallowed nervously.

She looked almost the opposite of how her mother looked and even if she too was clothed in expensive brands it looked more like a costume than anything else. The brunette girl had a defiant glimpse on her eyes though and even if she wasn’t exactly saying anything Emma immediately felt a wave of sympathy towards her.

“It’s actually a little tricky to preform that pirouette” She heard herself saying as she skated towards the two women. The two brunettes looked at her, startled, but before the younger, Regina, looked at her mother apprehensively once again the blonde could have sworn to have seen a grateful smile curling her lips for a second.

“And you may be…?” The mother said with a disrespectful voice, making very clear her opinion about Emma’s interruption.

The blonde, never one who would turn down a challenge, smiled as sweetly as she could and shrugged.

“No one”

“You are the girl who were doing the camel spin a while back” Regina provided, her voice deeper than her mother’s and with a timbre that made Emma blush for a second realizing the rich accent she possessed and liking it.

“Yup” She answered, trying to hide her deepening blush. “I’m quite good at skating” She provided to the mother in an afterthought with a cheeky smile.

She had decided that whereas the daughter appeared to be interesting the mother was anything but a snob and she had her own share of those to know that she didn’t want to be polite with her.

“I see” The woman said, her eyes narrowed and looking almost as if she was mentally thinking on the best way to slice Emma’s throat while she wasn’t looking. Gulping a little the blonde jumped startled when Regina’s voice sounded again at her side.

“Maybe she can help me mother” Regina provided, smiling sweetly at her mother’s suspicious eyes. The blonde didn’t say anything at that, feeling that she didn’t exactly had the real opportunity so say something against Regina’s words.

“What’s your name girl?” The mother asked, her chin rising as if she was some kind of mighty queen about to pardon one of her servants.

Emma despised being from a rich family, not only because of what that meant for her but also because she was always needing to remind herself that people tended to see her on a different light whenever she said who was her family. Her parents weren’t exactly as snob as the woman she had in front of her but they also behaved like the kind of people who had been rich since they had been born and even if Emma had been raised the same way she didn’t have the same way of behaving or thinking about herself and the ones who surrounded her. Because of that she smiled grimly at the woman before saying her name, knowing that the woman, whoever she was, was going to connect quickly her name with the one that named the rink.

“I’m Emma De White ma’am” She finally replied, sighing mentally and biting her bottom lip as she moved a little on her skates, just a few inches at her right that made her bump her shoulder against the other girl’s who stumbled slightly, her brown eyes still focused on her.

The woman frowned before blanching, her eyes darting quickly towards the entrance of the rink where the name of Emma’s family was displayed on red letters.

“You…” The woman mumbled for a second before smiling, her lips forming a fake smile that made Emma want to gag. However, Regina kept looking at her, a mix of interest and resignation towards her mother present on her pupils. ”Pleased to meet you Miss White”

The fawning look the woman gave to her almost made Emma laugh, the fakeness of the woman so obvious that Regina at her side seemed ready to open up a hole on the ice and hide herself in it.

“Call me Emma” The blonde replied, looking pointedly at the woman, hoping she took the hint.

“Sorry, my manners” The woman finally said, laughing a little as she moved her right hand around, as if trying to get rid of some kind of mosquito. “I’m Cora Mills and this is my daughter, Regina”

The two girls looked at each other and nodded, neither of them really interested on the obvious display Cora was trying to make in front of the heir of one of the most well-known families all over the country.

The blonde looked at her hands as she thought on Elsa once again, the girl was still going to need at least a few hours of talking both to her parents and her sister before being able to call her or just skype for a little, she could be with Regina for a while and keep her away from her obviously snob mother.

“About what Regina said” She said towards Cora, an easy smile on her face, “I volunteer to help her; I’ve been skating since I was big enough to put my own skates so maybe I can help her with a few tricks”

Cora looked reluctant but after a few minutes of pondering she nodded, looking at Regina with an icy glare that made even Emma swallow a little before turning and seating on one of the benches that circled the ice rink.

“You don’t need to…” Regina started, turning around slowly until she was inches away from Emma. She was slightly shorter than the blonde and for a second the girl blinked before adjusting her stance once again, her legs wobbling a little. “I mean, I told her that to make her stop, I don’t want to bother you if you want to be alone or…”

Emma shook her head: albeit that day wasn’t one of her best she hated the parents that treated her children like some big mistake they needed to correct with off-handed comments that only affected the children’s way to perceive themselves. And Cora Mills was exactly that kind of parent.

“Don’t worry” She smiled “I’m quite used to skate with someone so it would be nice to be with paired up with you today”

Regina smiled at that and nodded, tentatively starting to move as Emma moved away from her, the skates grazing the ice of the rink as slowly as possible to make the other girl feel comfortable enough to keep going. The rink was still quite empty so almost no one looked at them as they started to do the first round; Regina needed a few seconds here and there to readjust her stance whenever she needed to turn her body in order to keep herself standing but, otherwise, she wasn’t as bad as she had looked when her mother had been screaming at her.

“Relax your pose” Emma said softly, touching the other girl’s shoulder blade when she noticed how Regina kept looking at where her mother was seated. They were by now at the other side of the rink but the woman’s presence was something that Regina kept around her, like an odor that managed to linger no matter what. “Look ahead and don’t over think it, swift movements, just like that”

After a while and a few stumbles Regina started to feel comfortable enough to actually look at Emma while moving her hands not curled up in fists every time they did a curve.

“I’m sorry about my mother” She finally said, a light blush dusting her cheeks “She can be… like this whenever she recognizes a name”

Emma shrugged, moving her right hand to indicate Regina where they were going to turn. “Don’t worry” She answered “I’ve already known a few people like that before, no harm done”

The brunette girl nodded pensively and this time it was Emma the one who kept looking at her as they skated. “I’ve never seen you here before” She finally said with doubt ringing on her voice as she touched the back of her head, dubious. And it was true, Regina and her mother looked like completely strangers for her and she had quite the good memory for faces.

“We are here because of father” The other girl answered, her full bottom lip trapped between her fingers as she carefully managed to do a little twirl without falling “The company sent him here and mother thought that this place could be a very interesting one for me to live”

Emma nodded at that, Storybrooke was a little city but one famous enough for the celebrities that lived there. Cora was probably going to have the time of her life meeting important face and names during the time the Mills lived there.

“How do you do that?” The brunette asked when Emma did a little twirl, nothing too obvious but complicated enough to leave an interesting pattern on the ice below them. Emma smiled at her, it was obvious that Regina knew the basics and names of the sport but apparently her knowledge ended there.

“How about we met tomorrow and see what you can do?”

* * *

 

That night, after telling her parents about how she was going to go to the rink with a new friend the next day, Emma grabbed her laptop and called Elsa, knowing that the other girl would probably be in the middle of her day in the other side of the world. A smiling, yet tired-looking blonde waved from the other side of the screen as Emma finally seated on her bed, feeling more alone than ever when the realization that she was not going to be able to sneek up to Elsa’s room anymore during the summer downed on her.

“I miss you” She said with a smile, making Elsa nod at her, her eyes dull and lacking her natural glow. “Problems with your parents?”

“Nothing important” The other blonde answered hugging her legs and looking at Emma, her hair, that she normally braided and let her bangs remain free, was now carefully brushed, none a single hair out of place. “You know how they are”

Emma nodded, the comment reminding her about Regina and their little chat they have had that afternoon under the piercing glare of Cora.

“Speaking of that” She said “Today I met a girl, Regina, she was having a few problems with her mother on the ice rink and I’m going to teach her how to skate while I’m still here”

The smile on Elsa faltered for a second but ended up nodding “That’s great” She said, a tiny lopsided smile on her face “Try to not kill some poor child like you did the last time we were there”

Emma rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue, making Elsa giggle “That was an accident and you know it”

“Yes, that’s what you say” Elsa replied, winking at Emma, and although her face was slightly pixelated the blonde could feel the warmth radiating from Elsa’s eyes.

“I…” She started, her voice becoming weaker when she realized what she had wanted to say. As much as she wanted to say it she didn’t want to tell that kind of thing to Elsa through pc, not the first time, and so she merely shook her head and laughed with her, falling asleep once Elsa disconnected the call.

* * *

 

Turned out Cora didn’t show up the following day. The woman needed to do some important errands that couldn’t be postponed anymore and thanks to that the blonde heir found herself looking only at Regina when she arrived at the rink, skates on her hands.

“Look at you” She said with a cheeky grin that was met with a huff “Ready for another round?”

“No” Regina admitted, laughing a little. Now that her mother wasn’t with her she looked much more at ease, her eyes glowing like embers. “But I don’t have any other option, do I?”

“We could always skip the lesson but that wouldn’t be very professional” The blonde retorted, making Regina the one who rolled up her eyes this time.

“I’m good at riding horses” She finally admitted as they entered in the rink. The blonde waved briefly at the girl guarding the entrance when they walked in front of her, her eyes focused solely on Regina. “But ice skating…”

“Some people say that if you are good with normal skates skating on ice is a piece of cake” The blonde replied as she opened the door of the changing rooms and let the other girl enter before her, closing the door as soon as she walked inside.

“I’m not good on that either, mother is always saying that ice skating is something I need to master, she doesn’t like my obsession over horses” Regina shrugged at that, almost apologizing at Emma for her mother’s behavior.

“Well, I would be delighted to see you sometime riding” Emma said, fastening her skates and waiting to Regina until the brunette was ready. “My mother loves riding but I’m not patient enough to raise one and ride them, last time I tried I ended up covered in mud and something that I hope was only water.”

“I bet you looked stunning” Regina replied, making Emma chuckle at that as she remembered that time and the look on her mother’s face when she had entered home sporting several bruises and the firm resolution of not going to try the awful idea of riding one of those animals ever again.

Today, however, she almost wished she would have had.

* * *

 

As days transformed into weeks Emma created a timetable in where she found comfortable in; waking up late after talking with Elsa as much as possible over the phone or over the laptop the night before, helping on the house and therefore making her parents nervous because of her will of helping, readying herself for the university she would soon be attending and going towards the rink to spend her afternoons with Regina. Sometimes Cora was there, looking at her daughter and giving fake smiles at Emma whenever she was able to and some other times the girl was alone. Emma preferred those days since not only Regina did everything better but the girl was more like the woman Emma suspected she was under everything her mother pretended to throw at her every time she was around her.

During those quiet moments and between silly attempts of trying to make a pirouette and failing (Regina was still as bad as she had been the first day but at least much more comfortable with herself) Emma knew about Regina’s now ex-boyfriend; Daniel, and how Cora had managed to divide them before the girl’s father managed to get the new job in Storybrooke. Emma also learnt about Cora’s obsession of pretending to be the best on absolute everything. From her part Emma told Regina about her own snob parents, the way they always looked at her like some kind of princess. She also told her about Elsa but with a soft voice full of longing and confusion that made Regina hug her tightly with the inconvenience of making the two of them fall on top of a  hild as they tried to skate.

During those days she also found in the brunette –who was indeed 20- someone in who she could confide and even if they had met each other in some quite strange circumstances their friendship bond grew strong with every passing day.

At the end of their third week Regina asked Emma if she wanted to change the rink for the stables that were at the other side of the city and even if Emma was a little more than reluctant she finally agreed, swallowing nervously as they walked to the wooden cabin that hold the horses. The place was managed by the Mrs.Blue, some friend of her mother, and so the woman didn’t had any problem when Emma, in a tiny and shaking voice, asked to ride some of the beasts she kept there.

“Just pick the ones you want” The woman smiled at her, looking at Regina from the corner of her eyes whenever she thought the young woman couldn’t see her. It was obvious that Blue didn’t know about Emma’s attempt of riding a horse years ago and so Emma found herself looking at the big animals feeling dreed and fear as Regina merely petted every single one of them with a tender smile on her face.

“Daniel was the one who taught me how to ride” She finally said touching gently one of the horses, the soft caramel color of the beast making Emma think about Regina’s changing eyes for a second. The brunette’s mood was easily recognized by the way her eyes shone and in that moment, looking at the horse and giggling a little whenever the beast tickled her hand when he tried to eat from it, her eyes looked almost like melted caramel instead of the chocolate pools she was accustomed to see.

“And you are now going to kill me” The blonde answered after swallowing “How fitting”

The brunette woman shook her head and looked at Emma as if she was ready to say something because of Emma’s remark. Letting it go she turned and went to the horse that was peacefully eating at the left side of the one she had been touching until now. It was almost white and a looking a little bit younger than the other one.

“I think this one suits you” She finally said, smirking a little when she saw the way Emma’s eyes widened. “Don’t worry, it looks very easy and I will be with you in this one”

Emma licked her lips, not sure of what to do.

“It’s not like you can do something” Regina pointed out “You are the one who tries to murder me every single day when we are at the rink”

“Touché” The blonde admitted, a brief smile appearing on her lips before she focused again on the horses in front of her. Sighing and approaching at the one Regina still had near her she extracted her hands from her back pockets, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds her right hand trembled a little when she raised it, mentally readying herself.

“Don’t worry” The brunette repeated. “There is nothing you need to be afraid of”

“No mud?” Emma asked, her voice trembling a little and making Regina nod at her, a soft smile curling her lips, her hair-that had grown quite a bit in those three weeks-moving alongside with her, brown tresses shadowing her eyes a little.

“No mud”

That day the blonde discovered that she wasn’t as bad riding a horse as she had thought about herself and even if she needed a little bit of help to start and another bit of help to keep on the horse instead of falling she enjoyed quite a bit the day, laughing at Regina’s playful remarks whenever the other young woman felt like it. That was the first day she truly saw what kind of person Regina Mills was and she found herself liking the girl even more than she already did.

That was also the day in where she dreamt about kissing her instead of Elsa.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I lied, I told that this was going to be a two-shot but nope, it’s going to be a three-shot. Ups Xd

 

 During the following days Emma tried a hundred of times to keep herself away from Regina, unable to look at her and not think about the kiss she had dreamt that night and the following ones.

Sometimes the kiss was sweet, soft, a kiss on the ice rink, before they started their usual “classes”, some other times the kiss was heated, full of desire that made Emma’s fingers curl a little over the top of the pants she wore to sleep. It didn’t really matter because she couldn’t make the dreams disappear, no matter how hard she tried.

She also avoided Elsa, their calls shorter than ever and with a wave of guilt washing over her every time she tried to look at herself on the mirror.

She loved Elsa; she had liked her for as long as she could remember. They had practically grew up together and it had been her the one that when Emma had started to question her own sexuality she had been there for her, assuring her that she wasn’t sick or crazy.

Maybe, she finally thought one night, her eyes focused on the dark screen of her computer that was what was happening, that Elsa and her had been friends for far too long.

Sighing and caressing her right hand compulsively like every time she felt nervous she switched on the screen, humming as she opened the app and proceeded to try to call Elsa via skype. She had been elusive the past couple of days but she knew that Elsa was anything but a quitter. She would probably be there, waiting.

When the girl’s features appeared, worry on her pixelated eyes, Emma smiled weakly, feeling self-conscious as Elsa typed on the little chat box, her bottom lip between her teeth.

**_Anna is here with me, she wanted to say hello, do you want to talk with her?_ **

That made Emma blink, she had met Elsa’s younger sister before and the girl usually wanted to talk to her. Elsa said that the red-head had a crush on her but they had never been able to prove that theory.

**_Yes, if she wants to…_ **

Apparently that was everything the younger girl needed since she appeared on the screen smiling broadly and waving her hand at her, starting a long tirade of how many things she and her sister had done during their time together and what they were going to do the following days.

She also talked about a boyfriend of some sorts and a discussion she had had with one of her friends over the same boyfriend but Emma couldn’t pay attention to the girl, too preoccupied on the worried glances Elsa kept throwing at her, a flash of hurt showing every now and then.

“…And that’s it” Anna said with a smile and a shrug “So I asked to Elsa if I could see you because since you have been avoiding her for the past few days I wanted to ask you directly if you were sick of something”

Oh, there it was. Sometimes Emma forgot how much Anna actually cared for Elsa and sighing, she glanced down, feeling a blush starting to cover her cheeks.

“There were things I needed to think about” She finally explained with a tight smile. “But I called because I wanted to come clean with them”

Even if she was talking to Anna her eyes searched Elsa’s, a soft smile parting the other blonde’s lips for a second. The red-head girl hummed and looked at her sister, nodding and standing from the bed the two of them were sharing.

“Then I will go but, Emma” She called, making the blonde look at her, startled “If you hurt her I’m going to curse you into the next decade if it’s necessary”

A loud sound was heard –Something that Emma assumed was the door of Elsa’s room- and Elsa exhaled deeply, her right hand playing with the braid she was wearing that day. It still looked too perfect, like her parents liked, but there was something on her eyes that made Emma swallow and bit her tongue.

“Curse?” She finally asked as the silence stretched. The other blonde nodded, waving one of her hands in the general direction of her door.

“She is been talking a lot about ancestral magic with Kristoff, apparently we are the descendants of some kind of woman that was considered a powerful witch back on her day”

Emma hummed at that, nodding and hugging her legs, not knowing what to answer to that, Anna had always been too curious for her own good, trying to discover who their ancestors were wasn’t the weirdest thing she had heard about her.

“So…” Elsa finally said, raising an eyebrow, her hands hovering over the keyboard. “You said you wanted to talk”

Emma sighed; she cared about Elsa, she had been the girl whom she had learnt how to ride a bike, the one whom had made her loose her fear to heights. He had been there for so long that she couldn’t help but think that one of the worst things that would ever happen to her was being in a place without Elsa near her.

But, she realized, the blonde at the other side of the screen wasn’t the girl that she wanted to kiss anymore. And she couldn’t lie to Elsa, even if she hadn’t talked to Regina about it.

“Remember the girl I told you about?” She started, her fingers playing with the hem of the shirt she was wearing, her eyes fixed on the keyboard, unable to look at her.

“Yes” The blonde girl said, fear lacing her words and for a millisecond Emma thought if Elsa hadn’t been thinking about this the very same day she had talked about Regina.

“I… dreamt about her” She continued, biting her thumb and nodding to herself. “About kissing her”

The silence was deafening and for a second Emma trembled, unsure if she was able to look at the screen.

“I haven’t done anything” She declared, her voice thick with unshed tears. “But…”

“But you have been thinking about it” Elsa finished, making her look up at her and nod, her bottom lip trembling. “Emma…”

The green-eyed blonde sighed, putting one hand over her stomach and trying to explain herself. “I didn’t see her like that before, she hadn’t even told me that she likes me but I didn’t… I didn’t want to be the kind of person who lies to you”

The two girls looked at each other, Emma afraid, Elsa defeated.

“I love you” The blue-eyed blonde finally said. “I love you more than just my girlfriend” She continued when Emma tried to speak. “You have been my friend for far longer than we have been together”

Emma nodded; she still could hear the hurt on Elsa’s voice, the way she tried to keep everything together, under grasps.

“Do you love her?” Elsa asked, the question making Emma jump a little.

She hadn’t considered it, they had only known each other for three weeks and she had actually been avoiding for three days so she wasn’t sure where she stood in that moment. But it was true that if the brunette kissed her the following day she would respond and try to deepen the contact as much as she was able to.

“No” She finally answered, uncertain.

“But you might” Elsa answered, sorrow on her eyes. The look was what made Emma want to cry and ask for forgiveness; the way Elsa kept looking at her, hurt, but with the same look she always gave to her whenever they were in front of each other: With trust.

“I don’t know” Emma said “I don’t want to lose you”

The other side of the screen remained silent for a while until Elsa spoke, her voice soft and mellow now. “I would like to say that I would fight for you” She muttered “But I have already lost that part”

“Elsa…” Emma started only to be interrupted by the other blonde, her voice stronger this time.

“I don’t know what to say right now Emma ok? I just can’t, but if you have feelings for her, if you can be happy…”

The two girls remained silent for a while, years of adventures keeping each other grounded as they looked at the other through pixelated screens.

“I’m sorry” Emma finally said making Elsa shrug and smile sadly at her.

“You will always be my best friend, no matter what”

That night, when Emma finally closed her eyes, she dreamt about Regina, only this time the brunette and she were simply seated on one of the benches Storybrooke’s park had.

* * *

Regina was reluctant when Emma called for her and asked her if she wanted to resume their classes but after a long talk via phone the blonde managed to explain herself as well as possible without admitting the whole truth. She still wasn’t sure if the feelings were mutual and she didn’t want to push the brunette girl into anything so, when she finally met with Regina in front of the rink’s door and the shorter girl hugged her she merely smiled, stunned for a second of the brunette’s scent.

“I’m still not sure if I should forgive you” Regina said as she took a step back “But I’ve missed you”

The soft admission made Emma feel even worse, she knew that she had overreacted just because a simple dream but she had never been in the situation she was now and it actually looked a little ridiculous how sure she had been about everything until that particular dream.

“I’m sorry about it” She answered, making the other girl nod a little and look at her through thick eyelashes. Neither of them moved for a second until Emma pointed at the door of the rink, smiling awkwardly at the brunette and thanking mentally that the Cora hadn’t showed up. “Shall we enter?”

It actually took her a few minutes to be around Regina without actually thinking on the dream or the fact that she still wanted to kiss her. She felt shy and like the teenager she had been once with Elsa when she had been unsure of her friend’s reaction to the feelings she had for her.

Thinking about the blonde girl made her sigh and look away, guilt still present on her mind.

“Everything ok?” Regina asked, frowning as she tried to move steadily forwards, those three days without skating had taken their toll and she now eyed the white surface wearily, unsure of what she needed to do.

“I have a lot of things on my mind lately” The blonde excused herself, shaking her head and smiling at the brunette, circling her and looking at the way she bent her legs. “Be careful there, you need to…” The brunette slipped and Emma needed to keep her steady. “There you are” She said with an amused voice.

“ Ouch” The brunette whispered, exhaling and smiling at the blonde who looked at her lips for a second before moving away, red dusting her cheeks. “I think I’m going to die before tomorrow arrives”

The teasing tone on her voice made Emma frown and look at her, feeling a tingle of arousal when she saw the way Regina smirked at her. “Why tomorrow?” She asked.

“Because…” Regina replied, skating closer to her with slow movements “I talked with Mrs. Blue and she already told me that we could use her horses to go outside her property”

“She let you ask her that?” Emma asked, feeling the normal fear that always came to her whenever horses were involved.

“She said that while you were with me nothing bad needed to happen, I think she still believes that you are your mother…”

That made Emma snort, the old woman was surely blind. It was obvious for anyone that had been with her and a horse how incompetent she was on top of one.

“Finally a true smile” Regina’s voice made Emma blush, realizing that she had indeed been caught by the brunette “Here thinking that you were hopeless”

Grumbling, Emma let that go albeit a part of her exhaled, calmer now than she had finally seen Regina.

“I broke up with Elsa” She finally supplied, shrugging when Regina looked at her, worry written all over her face.

“I’m sorry” The brunette commented softly, gripping the edge of the rink viciously as Emma moved a little closer, hugging her frame. “How are you?”

“I’m… fine, I think” The blonde said, smiling a little when Regina looked at her, not believing her in the slightest. “I’m saying the truth, I’m fine”

“Uh-uh” Regina said back, a doubtful look on her eyes as she managed to skate a little, leaving the fence and managing to actually spin without falling. ”That’s what you say”

“Exactly, that’s what I say” Emma answered back, a laugh on her throat when Regina finally fell down “C’mon, we have a lot I still need to teach you”

* * *

The following days neither Emma nor Regina talked about the circumstances of why Emma had decided to stop seeing the other girl for three days. Something for what the blonde was grateful for since she still didn’t know what to say towards the brunette. She also spoke very little to Elsa something that, even if it hurt her, she understood. The blonde was a very reserved person and needed her own pace.

Which was actually something that helped her to figure out a few things during those days: not only her feelings for Elsa but for Regina as well.

It was undeniable that she felt something for the other girl, not only because of the dreams she had kept having but because how she responded to the other girl’s presence no matter what they were doing. The brunette was definitely beautiful, witty and smart and more often than not Emma found herself speechless because of the intelligence the other young woman displayed.

She had been home schooled for most of her life which explained a few of her quirkiness but whenever Emma tried to know more about it Regina closed herself and changed the topic. She was actually attending her third year on politics and ready to move out of her parents’ home.

“I’m still here because of father” She told Emma one day as the blonde tried once again to not tremble in front of a horse. “I just… mother can’t stand him and I know how hard for him is being alone with her”

Emma had nodded. She couldn’t blame Regina for that; Cora looked like a complicated woman, one that no one would ever want to cross.

Regina had also avoided talking about Elsa, letting Emma be the one who mentioned the other girl. She also didn’t say a thing when Emma explained to her that even with the break up Elsa and her were still friends but the blonde saw a flicker of something on her eyes that made her swallow and actually be the one who almost fell on the ice surface the day they had been skating on the rink.

It was easy, comfortable, being with the other girl, and even if she missed Elsa, the long conversations, she knew that she needed to wait.

It wasn’t until mid-august, less than two weeks before she needed to pack and move out, when the two of them were on the stables and something made her little world tremble. Regina was caressing g the horse she had been riding the whole summer with a pensive look on her eyes and a soft smile that made Emma think about cameras and stupid ideas of herself and the brunette.

“You know” Regina commented, almost as if she was saying something about the weather “One day you could ask me if I want to”

Emma frowned, not sure of what the other young woman was talking about. Regina was many things but something she blurted information that wasn’t exactly something Emma would have expected in that moment the blonde felt lost. “Sorry?”

Regina turned, looking at where Emma was standing with a lopsided smile that made Emma swallow, noticing the way the brunette’s eyes seemed to be opening holes on hers.

“Kiss me”

The words were said in a soft voice, sure at first and when Emma kept silent the eyes that had been pinning the blonde against the opposite wall shining terribly shy and full of a sudden fear that made the blonde want to move and hug the brunette. However, the truth that hold those words made her feel glued to the floor, her mouth slightly agape.

“I’m sorry” The brunette finally said “I know about what happened with Elsa but… I wasn’t sure if what you…”

The rambling made Emma remember about how closed off Regina had been about Daniel, about the pain that had laced her words when she had tried to explain what had been for her the young boy and she exhaled, suddenly understanding that Regina had been probably been doing the same inner path than herself.

“No” She said, approaching her, her hands sweating a little as she extracted them from the pockets of the red leather jacket she wore. “I do want to kiss you” She admitted and at their side the horse neighed softly, making her chuckle for a second. Tilting her head she laughed again “Look, even him is aware of that”

That made Regina blush and laugh a little, looking at Emma in a mix of wonder and exasperation that made the blonde’s grin even grew larger than before.

“I didn’t know how to tell you that I wanted to do that” She continued, putting her hands on the belt and sighing deeply “I just… I didn’t want to assume.

“You don’t need to do that” Regina replied “Assume I mean” She added seeing the confusion on Emma’s face “I’ve been thinking about kissing you… a lot these past weeks but I didn’t want to meddle in something that it wasn’t mine to do”

Emma swallowed, feeling overly conscious about the fact that Regina and she were only a few inches away. Licking her lips and shuddering when she saw the way Regina looked at her lips for a second before returning her eyes towards her own she tried to smile.

“There is nothing…” She started, Elsa had been adamant about Regina, about herself. She still was unsure of what that meant for the two of them as friends but if she had something clear was that she had tried to do the right thing by telling the other blonde first about what had happened with her and how she felt. “There is nothing you need to worry about, if you still want to do something”

The words were soft, turning almost a whisper when Regina took a step closer to her, Emma finding herself with the horse at her right, the girl in front of her and the wooden wall of the stall at her left, the light that illuminated the stall poor enough to created shadows on Regina’s features as she moved, her own tongue licking her lips in the same nervous reflex as hers.

“Then, if you are sure…” Regina started, closing the distance and kissing Emma as softly as possible, moving her lips against the blonde as Emma closed her eyes, unable to do anything else.

“Wow” She whispered when Regina moved back, a smug smile on her lips that made Emma kiss her for a second time, erasing the smile and making Regina whimper at the sudden movement.

“Tease” The brunette complained, laughing when Emma kissed her a third time, smiling madly as the other girl returned the kisses with a few more of her own.

They definitely didn’t ride as they had planned to do that day but neither Emma nor Regina complained a lot about that particular fact.


	3. Chapter 3

During the following days Emma’s life went by in a bliss; mornings were dedicated to Regina and evenings were also filled with the brunette’s presence. The blonde was still on thin ice with Elsa; the other blonde and her still unsure of how to behave with each other every time they tried to talk via skype, but Emma was hopeful that, with time, she would be able to have her best friend back.

Regina understood the situation and so she never pushed, letting Emma be the one who led their relationship and the level of intimacy the woman wanted to share. A few days after their first kiss Emma had presented Regina formally to her parents who had beamed at the well-mannered brunette in front of them. Emma had wanted to gag a little at her mother’s sweetness but had kept a straight face until the end when Regina had finally excused them and they had been free to be alone without the blonde’s mother trying to be the center of the room.

“I think both of our mothers are nuts” Emma had pointed out once they were finally free and Regina had smiled, nodding and pecking the blonde’s cheek before taking a step at her right, dodging Emma’s attempt of kissing her back.

“Behave” She said as she winked, laughing when Emma started to pout.

Emma was definitely happy and even the remorse for what had happened with Elsa didn’t somber the fact that Regina was slowly but surely transforming into someone very important for her.

However, life changes and so,  one week and a day after their first kiss, when Emma was waiting for Regina to arrive to the ice-rink’s door, she received a message for the other girl that read “I can’t be with you today” as an only explanation.

Emma tried to call the brunette’s house a few hours after that, finding soon enough that the lonely hours on the rink were nothing but bothersome. The calls went straightly to the voicemail and every single message Emma sent after that weren’t answered.

Soon enough she found herself bored and anxious and even the walk back to her house didn’t alleviate the nervousness that started to grow on the pit of her stomach. Her mother’s questions about her day were met with a wall of monosyllables and soon enough Emma found herself staring at the screen of her phone, waiting for Regina to call her back.

The brunette, however, didn’t answer and Emma fell asleep with her right hand still clutching her phone. It was a stupid way to behave, she thought seconds before her heavy eyelids finally dropped. Stupid and clingy, but Regina had always been very straightforward with her and so Emma dreaded the sudden silence of the brunette.

A silence that Emma soon enough found herself wanting to take it back when she saw the other girl looking too cozy with a slightly older boy, a void look on his eyes as he threw his arm over her shoulder in front of what had been their dating spot for the last few days eliciting a few curious stares of the citizens that had already seen both girls walking hand in hand and sometimes kissing each other sweetly when they thought that no one could see them.

Emma could have thought that the boy was nothing but some kind of friend that Regina hadn’t told her about but the second the man tried to kiss Regina with his stubbly face she clenched her fists and marched towards the obviously uncomfortable Regina who managed to dodge the obvious delusional guy.

“Excuse me” She started, her voice loud and clear, her eyes glowing dangerously under the sunlight. The man was as tall as she was, with a few well-placed muscles here and there and a permanent expression of boredom that made Emma want to smack him out of it.

“Emma” Regina said, smiling warmly at her, a smile that even if Emma had seen thousands of times before this time didn’t reach her eyes. Glancing subtly at her left Regina tilted her head until Emma saw Cora’s profile a few meters away. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it yesterday for our daily class, Robin came to say hi and I couldn’t …”

“Your mother told that it was alright for you to lose one class” The boy, whose voice sounded whiny if someone wanted Emma’s opinion, said while blinking slowly, his arm still touching too much of Regina’s body for Emma’s tastes.

Regina smiled apologetically at that, obviously not knowing what to say. Emma felt Cora’s eyes on her like a hawk eyeing her prey and so she swallowed, biting her tongue while trying not to lash out at Robin as the boy smiled stupidly at Regina and made some obvious attempt of kissing her again.

“Robin” She finally said after a few uncomfortable seconds she spent looking at Regina’s and trying to understand what was going on. “I think I’d never heard about you”

The boy nodded slowly, fortunately moving slightly away from Regina who sighed on relief as Emma eyed the man for a third time, trying to find something that would explain who he was or what he was doing there.

“I’m one friend of Regina’s sister” He provided lamely, shrugging and looking painfully confused as he stood there, answering Emma’s question.

That certainly made Emma frown and glance briefly at Regina who looked very interested on being sure that her mother didn’t approach their little group.

As far as Emma knew Regina’s older sister was a topic that the brunette always tried to avoid. She hadn’t know about her in fact since a few days ago and for the way she had talked about the other woman Regina’s sister was a particular sore spot for the brunette, a spot that shouldn’t have had complications like the guy she was looking at it right now.

“Ex-fiancé” Regina added surly, looking at everything but Emma as the blonde’s neck snapped due to the swift movement she made when she picked up Regina’s words.

“That” Robin replied, shrugging again and looking as if Regina had merely informed Emma that she preferred red over black.

Still trying to figure what Robin’s presence meant Emma opened her mouth, ready to question something that died quickly on her mouth the second Robin spoke again, his voice making Emma want to close her eyes in annoyance for a second before the words coming out of his mouth were registered on her brain.

“Regina’s mother thought that since I can’t be in the family since Zelena’s preferences Regina could be a better match for me”

Emma actually blinked at that, the word “preferences” and “better match” getting stuck on her head. “You are telling me” She started, glancing back and forth from a proudly smiling Robin and a completely terrified Regina. “That Cora thought that since the first wedding hadn’t go as she had planned you needed to marry him?”

The question was obviously made at Regina but it was actually Robin the one who answered with a happy nod. Emma felt her insides scream at that, a part of her mind understand and figuring out what probably had happened.

There were a few norms and social conventions than a few families still used to keep power or gain even more even in the modern society they pretended to live in. Arranged marriage was something that Emma knew of even if she had been free of that particular constrictive social norm since her parents thought about the power that love had – She truly believed that her parents had been hippies at one point of life though but that was beside the point-

She would have never thought that Regina would be imposed in such thing and so even if the first thing that came to her mind was confusion the second was anger, anger because she suddenly realized that unless Regina spoke for herself she was going to ended up tied with Robin whoever-his-last-name-was. Groaning, she nodded curtly and left, tears threatening to spill as she walked past Cora’s smug face while trying not to tear up in front of the couple, the feeling of drowning overcoming her.

That night she didn’t sleep well and she even considered the idea of calling Elsa and explain her everything although she finally decided to not do that, unsure that their still re-building relationship as friends could hold that kind of weight. She, however, received a bunch of texts, most of them apologies from Regina, the other half, also from Regina, were half-baked explanations that made her purse her lips and bit them, unsure of what to do.

It wasn’t like she didn’t know why Cora was doing what she was doing since she probably was the kind of woman who had married trying to gain status. Her own grandfather had remarried a couple of times with women that wanted nothing more but to prosper in a society that sometimes saw first the money than the real person. Regina was nothing more but a pawn on Cora’s plans.

It was stupid; Robin was probably the son of some rich dude and only because of his status and the fact that he was a man he had pinged Cora’s radar.

Sighing, her thumb hovered over Regina’s name, the call button glowing softly on the dark of her room where almost everything that she had wanted to pack were already on boxes, a few picture frames here and there glowing slightly under the light emanating from her phone.

Emma had always been a stubborn child; both Elsa and her parents were able to confirm that, she had ever know what she wanted and almost always fought for it. Not like a spoiled child that knew that she could have everything she asked for but like a child that had always her mind and her wills clear inside of her. No matter what she needed to do Emma always tried. And that stubbornness also translated on the way she treated her friends; always trying to fight for them.

It was curious, she thought while shaking her head, that she seemed so sure that she needed to let go something that she had been so sure about that she had indeed left Elsa’s side in order to be able to pursue her feelings for Regina.

She was going to go in a few days, true, but Regina had known that almost for the beginning and had never showed any hesitation, only acceptance and some times they had even talked about keeping with the relationship after the summer was over. Emma surely could see herself with Regina more than just those few months.

And now, she added on her head, slowly starting to get angry with herself, just because some douchebag and her girlfriend’s mother decided something on Regina’s behalf she was going to turn a blind eye and left Regina to them? It was so stupid that she almost wanted to smack herself.

Growling she sat on her bed, her finger finally touching the button, the voice of the brunette soon enough sounding at the other side of the line.

“Emma?”

She sounded sad, subdued almost, and for a second Emma wanted even more to beat herself for the way she had handled the situation.

“I’m sorry” She said quickly, taking a big breath before continuing. “I only could think about the fact that he was touching you and that you weren’t saying anything about it, I’m sorry, really sorry”

She kept talking a few more minutes until she registered Regina’s voice, chanting her voice.

“I understand” She said once Emma stopped, her eyes wide open on the darkness of her room. “I just wanted to tell you that I couldn’t say “no” to my mother, not when she came up with Robin, not in front of my father”

“You are an adult” Emma caught herself answering “You deserve your own life”

That made Regina laugh for a second, a dry laugh that made Emma blush slightly, ashamed of how whiny she had just sounded. “I can’t leave my father alone, not with my mother controlling him”

“He lets you be controlled by her and tied to a man you don’t like” Emma grumbled back finding only silence at the end of the line.

“You are right” She heard followed by a sigh and some muttered words that looked a lot like “Give me a chance”

Emma did.

* * *

The following days, the last days Emma was going to be on her parents’ house, were spent between lengthy calls and promises that the blonde wanted desperately to believe in. She had offered to help Regina but the brunette had told her that she didn’t want to make everything even more complicated with her mother. The way she told that had made Emma reluctantly nod and accept the fact that she wasn’t going to be able to do anything but wait.

Elsa also asked how she was more than twice per skype call, not believing in the slightest her shrugs not credible enough. She told her everything two nights after her call to Regina and the way the other blonde cringed told Emma that her former girlfriend was thinking in the same line she had done the first day.

“Emma…” Elsa started, her accent a little more obvious now. “Are you sure that she is going to fight this? You know how things can be”

They both knew and for a second Emma nodded, seconds away from admitting that she didn’t know what to do next. However, the words that escaped from her mouth weren’t those but a strong “I know her Els, I believe her”

The other blonde had nodded, a flash of hurt glowing on her pupils making Emma want to groan. They were going to need a lot of time to be the friends they had been.

When only three days remained in order to go she started to go back to the ice-rink, smiling sadly at the memories of how she had first met Regina there, on how the brunette had make her laugh more times that she could actually remember. She spent hours there, her fingers itching, wanting to call Regina, to go to the Mills’ house and talk with Cora and say what she thought about her. During those morning walks back and forth from her house towards the ice-rink she often saw the car from Regina’s father but never actually approached to confirm if the man was inside, furious with him and his apathy. She also saw Robin but they never looked at each other more than a few seconds.

It was probably for the best that she didn’t see Regina though since she didn’t know how to feel about the somewhat cryptic messages the brunette always gave to her whenever she managed to call her and talk with her-normally in the middle of the night- and since days started to run down and her things were starting to being moved from her room to the back of the house where her own car awaited an anxious feeling started to grow on Emma’s stomach.

It didn’t seem like anything was going to change and so, on the final day, as she walked back from her morning skating she almost fell on her back when a smiling brunette was the one waiting for her in front of her house, her eyes shining slightly as she did so.

“Hi” Emma found herself whispering as Regina laughed, embracing her in one go before kissing her, hard, gliding her lips over hers as she tangled her fingers on her hair.

“Did you miss me?” Regina whispered against her lips and although there were many things Emma wanted to ask, to know, she only smiled and nodded, kissing Regina as a confirmation that the other girl was indeed in front of her.

Yes, she thought when she felt the brunette’s tongue against her lips, she was real, very very real.


End file.
